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MH/House Rules
Changes to Character Creation ; Initial Point Totals As per MH: Champions, each character is a 400 point PC built around a Champions, Furious Fists, or Heroes template. Starting wealth is $20,000 modified by Wealth or Patron. Each character also starts with an additional pool of 20 CP that can only be spent on Languages, Perks, or Techniques. No more than 6 points can be spent on Languages. Use the Dabbler perk to represent unimportant background skills. ;Special Rules for Heroes templates Characters built on a template from Action: Heroes, Action: Furious Fists, or Pyramid v3-5: X-Terminators need significant changes to be playable. They should reasonably resemble the closest Champions template, with cheapened or partial advantages bought up to full price (ie, removing limitations on Gadgeteer and buying full price Weapon Master or Gunslinger). All templates must have Combat Reflexes and at least 6 points in 2-3 skills from Know Thy Enemy. They must also have a motivational lens from Champions or equivalent -15 point disadvantage that explains why they participate in Monster Hunting. As these characters are more work for the GM, players must explain the character to the GM, especially any tricky bits or odd constructions (GM's judgment what constitutes tricky bits). Approval characters with unexplained tricky bits may be revoked at any time, including during play. ;Imbuements Crusaders, Experiments, Demons, Outcast Angels, and Psis purchase Imbuements (both skills and the base advantage) from their Advantage points, applying their normal power modifiers if applicable. The GM will veto inappropriate imbuement skills depending on the template. ;New Templates Some are available. Advantages ;Contacts and Contact Groups Contacts: Contacts and Contact groups are overpriced, especially beside Allies in high point value games. Remove 'Contact Group' entirely; a Contact purchased at the normal point cost provides access to an appropriate Wildcard skill; for instance, a friend in the police department would provide "Police!", while a member of an ancient magical order might provide "Magical Research!". Describe your Contact and work out appropriate skills with the GM. For base cost, the contact is available only in the campaign's primary area. For a network of contacts that stretches through a nation or other large area, pay double cost; for a network that stretches through the civilized world, pay five times cost. Effective Skill and Reliability costs are as normal. ;Talents Any template can take one or more of the new Talents for Ritual Path Magic, though spellcasters will find them the most useful. ;Wealth Use the following table for wealth levels Perks Martial and Magic Style perks are in play. In addition to their normal benefits against other stylists, they provide some other minor benefits described below. ;Quirky Martial Styles Familiarities Any character can buy a Martial Arts Style Familiarity perk for 0 points by taking one of the following quirks for it: * Offensive: This style trains for rapid attacks with little thought for defense. When attacking with a skill covered by the Style, the character must make All-Out Attacks or Committed Attacks and cannot make normal or Defensive Attacks. The character may not make Defensive Attacks or perform All-Out Defense for parries or blocks using the style skills. * Defensive: The style trains for cautious, defensive attacks. The character cannot make All-Out or Committed Attacks with skills covered by the style, and must use Defensive Attacks instead. As part of a Wait, or following an Evaluate, the character may make normal attacks. A character can have styles that are Offensive, Defensive, or neither, but no skills can be shared between styles with different quirks. If the character wants to learn a style that has shares skills but has different quirks, he must buy off the quirks. For example, a samurai might know Defensive Aikijitsu, Offensive Kenjutsu, and unquirked Sojitsu. If the samurai decided to study Offensive Te, he would have to buy off both quirks, leaving him with Aikijitsu, Te, Sojitsu, and Offensive Kenjutsu. ;Perk Limits The standard perk limits are in effect. That isn't much of a limitation: * Up to one Magic Perk per 20 points in Thaumatology and Path skills. * Up to one further Magic Perk for a specific magical style per 10 points in that style's skills and techniques. * Up to one Psionic Perk per 20 points in psionic skills. * Up to one further Psionic Perk for a specific psionic style per 10 points in that style's skills and techniques. * Up to one Style Perk per 20 points in combat skills and techniques. * Up to one further Style Perk for a specific fighting style per 10 points in that style's combat skills and techniques. * Up to one perk that's neither a Magic Perk nor a Style Perk per 25 points you have to build your character (ie, 16 non-Magic, non-Psi, non-Martial Arts style perks). Disadvantages Skills ;Tactics Tactics can be used to provide re-rolls during combat. See the section on Improved Leadership below. Techniques Any particular spell can be learned as an Average Technique, defaulting to the worst Path skill in the spell and improvable to +2. Each spell has a prerequisite of the Ritual Mastery Perk for that spell. Equipment ;Very Fine Melee Weapons :At TL8, all melee weapons are Fine at no extra cost. Very Fine versions are CF+3 for swords and CF+9 for other weapons (axes, spears, etc). ;Starting Vehicles Any vehicle purchased before play starts has an effective cost of 1/5th normal. ;Generic Vehicles :Base Vehicles All vehicles have DR5. :Vehicle Enhancements Any vehicle with better engines or suspension can either be custom or factory models. Factory models cost 25% less overall, but must have Sport Styling (if all extra components are Sport level or worse) or Superior Style (if any component is Racing or better). It's the difference between dropping a hemi in a junker and buying a Porsche - both may be just as fast, but one looks better. Vehicles with armor, rugged, or off-road options must be custom jobs. Vehicles may be bought used. For each 10% reduction in price (maximum 60% off), roll once on the Used Vehicle table on AH1 p34. TL7 designs may be bought used by really desperate adventurers. ;Modern Low Tech Armor Halve the base cost of any armor from GURPS Low-Tech. These armors can be made better with modern metallurgy and fabrication methods. :Low-Tech metal armors made from modern steel :Low-Tech cloth armors made from modern materials ;Low-Tech Armor Locations for Modern Armor :FIXME - Figure out what kevlar, sharps protection, etc look like in Low-Tech terms ;Kevlar and Edge Protection With the introduction of the Low-Tech edge protection rules, Kevlar's DR vs Cutting should be the same as its DR versus any other type of non-piercing damage. ;Tracking Ammo On a weapon by weapon basis, a PC may choose not to track ammo. Doing so requires buying and carrying enough ammo to fire the weapon continuously for 10 seconds at its maximum rate of fire, ignoring reload times. If the PC wants to have more than 1 ammo type available, they must take 10 seconds of ammo for the primary ammo type; each additional ammo type requires enough ammo of that type to fire the weapon for 5 seconds. ;Shotgun RoF Compact Pump Shotguns have an RoF of 2 whether firing slugs or shot. ;New Payload Options :Taser Rounds: Fires a miniaturized taser that can shock targets vulnerable to metabolic hazards. Reduces the range to 30 and changes damage to 1d-2 pi- and adds a follow-up HT-4 (0.5) Affliction. Any 12G shotgun: +289 CF. Changes to Play of the Game Combat ;Parrying Unarmed Attacks with Weapons A successful armed parry of an unarmed attack can be converted into damage by making a weapon skill roll. This does normal weapon damage -4, or -2 per die, whichever is worse. ;Armor as Dice All armor DR is converted to dice using the Modifying Dice + Adds rule from B269.When rolling damage, subtract armor DR dice from damage dice before rolling. If armor DR dice is greater than weapon damage dice, no damage is done. If armor DR exactly matches weapon damage dice, the attack does 1d-3 damage, minimum 0. If the armor is flexible the person wearing it takes a point of crushing blunt force trauma damage for each die of damage absorbed by the armor. This is doubled if the attack is crushing. If the attack is cutting and the damage dice after subtracting armor dice are less than the armor dice, then the injury multiplier for the attack is x1. ;Improved Evaluate The Evaluate maneuver give a bonus of +2 per round, not +1. Evaluate can give up to a +6 bonus, but does not stack with Telegraphic Attack. ;Improved Beat The Beat variant of the Feint attack option counts as both an offensive and defensive feint: if the feinter wins the contest, the MoS is applied as penalty to all defenses using the beaten weapon and all attacks using the beaten weapon until the feinter's next turn. Also, if the feinter wins the contest by 6+, the defender must make a weapon skill roll with a penalty equal to 1/2 the MoS or the weapon is unready. Failing this skill roll by 5+ causes the weapon to be dropped if possible. :Example: Ystava the minotaur has had it with Singeon the swashbuckler's skillful parries, and decides to beat Singeon's blade away. Ystava rolls ST-based Brawling (25) while Singeon defends with skill (22). The minotaur rolls a 9 to the swashbuckler's 12. Singeon's attacks and Parry defense are at -6 until the end of Ystava's next turn and the swashbuckler must roll Saber at a -3 penalty or his saber is also unready. ;Better Leadership At the start of each session, one PC (the leader) can use Tactics to make plans, at a bonus equal to the number of party members who know the skill (or Soldier) and a penalty equal to party size. Success earns a reroll, plus additional rerolls equal to the margin of success. Rerolls can be used in combat situations by any party member, if the leader passes a Leadership roll. If the leader is unconscious, dead or otherwise disabled, other PCs may attempt the Leadership roll at -2, but only 1 roll can be made per reroll attempt. Failing the skill check wastes the reroll opportunity. The leader does not have to have the highest Tactics in the party, but only one PC can attempt the Tactics roll. ;Combat and Vision Penalties for Lighting Ignore the rules on basic p. 394 when dealing with lighting penalties, though they apply normally to obscured, concealed, or invisible characters. Vision penalties for lighting are applied directly to all vision related Perception rolls and to all DX based rolls where vision is important. This includes combat, especially defense rolls. As usual, the applied penalty to Block and Parry is half the Vision penalty, and the applied Dodge penalty is one-quarter the Vision penalty. Fractions are rounded down. ;Armed Interdiction Anyone may attempt the Armed Interdiction technique. No one may purchase it up from their default. Damage is reduced to -4 from normal, or -2 per die, whichever is worse. If attempting an Armed Interdiction would cause a weapon to break, the wielder drops it instead. Flexible weapons such as kusaris and whips do not take a penalty to perform an Armed Interdiction, and are actually at +1 on rolls to attempt to do so. ;Martial Arts Style Familiarity Perks and Shout It Out! Once per combat for each Martial Arts Style Familiarity perk a PC has, the PC may use a signature move of that style to give +1 to a defense roll while using a skill from that style or give his foe a -1 to defend against an attack using a skill from that style (as per Shout It Out! from MA132). This is cumulative with the +1 or +2 bonus from Add Some Color! (MHM19). If a character with combat skills that are not covered by one of his style familiarity perks (assuming he has any) fights a foe whose style familiarity perks include that combat skill, the foe reduces the defense penalty from the character's feints and deceptive attacks by -1. ;New Maneuver Options :All-Out Ready: The character takes a Ready action as a free action and may still take his full maneuver. However, he loses all defenses until his next turn. This cannot be combined with an All Out Attack, Committed Attack, Defensive Attack, or All Out Defense. :Committed Ready: The character readies an object as a free action and may use it to attack; readying the object requires a DX+2 roll. He may move one step. Failure means that he still readies the object, but his turn ends and he suffers the defensive penalties for this maneuver. The character may not retreat or use the object to defend, and gets -2 to other defenses until his next turn. :Move and Ready: The character takes a Ready action as part of a Move. This requires an unmodified DX roll; failure means he fails to ready the object at all, but still suffers the defensive penalties for this maneuver. He may not use the object to defend, may not retreat, and suffers -2 to other defenses until his next turn. :Extra Effort - Fast Ready: The character spends 1 FP and rolls DX; on a success, he readies an object as a free action. On a failure, he readies the object as if with a standard Ready maneuver. There are no penalties to attack or defense. This is an 'offensive' Extra Effort option. :All-Out Stand: Go from Prone to Standing with a roll against Acrobatics+4 or DX-2. Failure leaves the character Kneeling. Critical failure leaves him prone. Lose all defenses until next turn. (This is effectively +10 to an Acrobatic Stand check.) :Committed Stand: Roll against unmodified Acrobatics or DX-6 to go from Prone to Standing. Failure leaves the character Kneeling. Critical failure leaves the character prone. Regardless, the character may not Dodge or retreat and gets -2 to defenses until his next turn. (This is effectively +6 to an Acrobatic Stand check.) :Extra Effort - Quick Stand: The character spends 1 FP and gains +4 to an Acrobatic Stand check, defaulting to Acrobatics-2 or DX-8. This is an 'offensive' Extra Effort option. :All-Out Concentrate: The character may move up to half his Move while concentrating, and gets +1 to rolls made for appropriate skills (spellcasting, psionics, etc), but lose all defenses until next turn. For spells with a casting time greater than one second, you must All-Out Concentrate for the entire casting time in order to get the +1 bonus. :Committed Concentrate: The character may move two steps while Concentrating, OR get +1 to rolls made for appropriate skills. All defenses are at -2, and the character may not retreat until next turn. For spells with a casting time greater than one second, you must use this maneuver for the entire casting time in order to get a skill bonus. :Move and Concentrate: The character may move up to his full move as part of a Concentrate action. Any rolls for skills (including spells) are at -4 and are capped at 11, similar to a Move and Attack. The character may not Dodge, and other defenses are at -2 until his next turn. For spells with a casting time greater than one second, the skill cap applies even if the roll occurs on a later turn! :Characters with Heroic Evoker reduce the skill penalty to -2 and are not affected by the skill cap. :Extra Effort: Mobile Concentration: As for Move and Concentrate, above, but the skill cap does not apply. The defense penalties still do! This is an 'offensive' Extra Effort option and costs 1 FP. Fright Checks Instead of rolling on the Fright Check Table, failing a Fright Check gives a penalty to IQ (including Perception and Will but not Fear), DX, and all skills based on them equal to 1/2 the sum of the margin of failure and the situation's penalty to Fright Checks. Defenses are not penalized unless a creature caused the Fright Check in which case 1/2 the penalty is applied to Active Defenses against its attacks. On a critical failure, the character is stunned and must reroll the original Fright Check after each turn of Doing Nothing to recover from the stun. Even when the character recovers from the stun, they still have the normal penalty to IQ, DX, and defenses from the critical failure against the Fright Check. The penalty lasts as long as the character is in the vicinity of whatever caused the Fright Check, and fades at the rate of 1 point of penalty per ten minutes after that. Alternately, the character can attempt to steady their nerves by taking a Concentrate maneuver and rerolling the original Fright Check: success reduces the penalty by 1, failure has no effect. Critical success reduces the penalty by 3; critical failure mentally stuns the character as though they had critically failed the original Fright Check. A good leader can rally her allies to help fight off the effects of fear. This requires a Concentrate action, a Leadership skill roll, and an appropriate (brief) speech. The skill roll is at a penalty equal to the highest fright penalty among allies the leader wishes to affect. Success on the roll reduces the fright penalty for all affected allies within earshot (including the leader) by 1; critical success reduces it by 3. Failure has no effect, and critical failure worsens the penalty by 1 for all allies within earshot. Ritual Path Magic ;Slightly faster non-adept casting A non-adept can gather ambient energy in one' minute per attempt (not 5). Tapping other power sources takes ten seconds (not one minute) per attempt. The roll to quickly tap an energy source is not at the -5 penalty. ;Sensing another caster's effects In order to determine details about another caster's effects - particularly the amount of energy used in it, the rough skill level of the caster, etc - use a Lesser Sense Magic effect. Dispelling another caster's effect is a Lesser Destroy Magic effect which requires energy equal to the original ritual's casting cost. All effects created by RPM are by definition temporary (even those with a long duration). Dispelling a permanent enchantment that's tied to a person or location (generally something created by magic greater than RPM) would be a Greater effect. ;Automatic Reserve Recovery Any caster who is conscious and unbound can recharge their energy reserve at the rate of 2 energy points every 5 minutes without performing any particular ritual. Casters in a hurry can perform rituals to recover energy faster. ;The subject of charms :When a charm is broken, the breaker of the charm is treated as the caster of the ritual from that point on. The subject of the ritual is determined normally and is not necessarily the one who broke the charm. If the ritual targets the caster, it targets the person who broke the ritual instead. If the ritual targets someone designated by the caster at the time the charm is broken, the breaker of the charm chooses the target subject to the ritual's range and target weight parameters. Note is possible for an enchanter to create a charm that targets a specific person when the charm is created, in which case the target does not change when the charm is broken. The target still must be inside the ritual's range and target weight parameters. ;Bullet charms A charm can be enchanted into a small, fragile disk at the base of the bullet, broken by the firing pin when the gun fires the bullet. The charm immediately takes effect with the bullet's target as the subject of the ritual. The attack roll for the gun includes and replaces any innate attack roll for the charm: if the bullet hits, the charm also hits. Multishot bullets require one charm for each shot included in the bullet. A bullet charm still requires enough range to reach the target. If the target outside of the bullet is outside the range of the ritual, the charm fails. Similarly, if the ritual in the charms has a subject weight component, the charm automatically fails if the target weighs more than the energy provided. Bullet charms that do damage can either have the damage be linked to the bullet damage (including just enhancing the bullet damage, being treated as one attack for DR purposes) or be a follow-up to the bullet damage, as the caster decides when the charm is created. ;Variable Dice For any ritual that does damage or heals, the caster may convert dice to constant modifiers or back again: a single die is a +3 modifier, and two dice is a +7 modifier. Doing so adds 1 energy to the ritual cost for every two dice converted, minimum 1 additional energy. ;Gizmos and Charms A caster with the Gizmo advantage can use the Gizmo to draw a previously unspecified charm. Each potential gizmo-charm counts as 4 spells for conditional spell purposes. A caster who fills all his conditional slots may not use the gizmo to draw a charm, though he can still use the gizmo to draw other items. When the caster draws the gizmo, he must immediately make the rolls to create the charm at a -2 penalty. Imbuements ;Guided Shot To prevent guided shot from being used cancel range penalties when shooting people in the eye, all guided shot attacks are made against a random hit location. ;FIXME: Or is routinely shooting people in the eye AWESOME and something that needs to be allowed? I'd think snipers are awesome because they're super skilled and have insanely high accuracy weapons, but... See Also